How L’Eau Can You Go? Chanel Releases No.5 L’Eau

by Katie on November 9, 2016

It’s November and they’ve started. The Christmas TV ads. The ones you either secretly enjoy or love to hate. Either way, come 24th December and by their several hundredth run, you’re crying out for the flip to Summer holiday ads. It’s also the time for huge departments stores and perfume brands to get behind their latest release or regular cash-cow and let the world know that a Christmas without fragrance is a world without joy. True for any perfume lover.

Chanel have upped the ante this season with their spectacularly clever Chanel No.5 L’Eau ad that not only perfectly encapsulates the brand and its direction but the new fragrance and its vitality. Its difference yet its sameness. Its freshness yet familiarity. #youknowmeandyoudont

Featuring muse, Lily-Rose Depp, the ad is a breathe of contemporary, visionary fresh air with the familiar black and white, composed elegance of Chanel, shot through with a bolt of light, with several flips to Technicolor. Completely capturing the essence of No.5 L’Eau, one of the most important and intelligent releases for the label in recent years.

Perfumer Olivier Polge has masterfully managed to re-configure Chanel No.5 that will see it extend past the youthful, fresh-faces it will surely appeal to, and captivate a whole new audience of older, stalwart Chanel No.5 devotees able to smell the differences and love them the more for it.

Younger, fresher, vibrant and vital, Chanel No.5 L’Eau doesn’t try to replicate so much as take the fragrance in a new direction that’s fitting for youth as well as lighter days and moods. Polge’s genius combines balance and daring. Taking No.5 beyond the expected, while charming the pounds from the purses of its fan base and appealing to a whole new audience of young ladies aiming to lunch, or rather, kick up their heels.

There’s an energy to No.5 L’Eau that is much needed within the perfumery house of Chanel that’s directly in sync with the ready-to-wear and couture offer of Monsieur Lagerfeld. That’s why this offer is so ingenious. Polge has stayed true to the most iconic, famous fragrance in the world while injecting a veil of gossamer, sparkling lightness that oomphs with energy. A feel-good fragrance in a bottle that appeals to all ages and all types of women.

Evanescent citrus aldeyde top notes combine with a floral heart that’s greener, crisper and edgier while ylang-ylang swirls into rose, ending on a soft trip of cedar and vetiver woody notes. No. 5 L’Eau’s staying power on the skin is strong for such a light fragrance, almost glimmering with sparkling, diamond bite.

This is a classy, non-showy offer that has been created, positioned and thought-through at every step. From its purity of composition and the crystalline transparency of the fragrance to the contemporary, bold, new graphic typeface, No.5 L’Eau rocks. I’ve no doubt Mlle Chanel would wholeheartedly approve.

Chanel No.5 L’Eau is available from Chanel counters and stores priced £68 (50ml) and £96 (100ml)